Trope Trip
by Warlordess
Summary: A one-shot series based on a list of cliche shipping tropes from Tumblr applied to Pokeshipping. Fic three is about being 'trapped in an enclosed space', involving Ash hiding in the coat closet at home to surprise his mom on her birthday... The only thing is, he ends up having an uninvited guest share the space with him.
1. huddling for warmth

**Disclaimer** – Of course I own this stuff! But only 'cause I stole it first! Mwahahah…

 **Author** \- Me! I mean, uh, Warlordess

 **O** o **O**

 **Title** \- "Trope Trip"

 **Summary** \- A fanfic series based on a common ship trope list from Tumblr applied to Ash and Misty. First on the list is "huddling for warmth", which ends up happening whether Ash likes it or not. Lol.

 **part one** \- "huddling for warmth"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

"Ash, you're being dense."

The raven-haired trainer sent a skeptical, proud glare in the direction of the splash of pale flesh draped in limp pink and turned away again, crossing his arms and effectively declining Misty's offer.

"I'm not wearing that. No way!"

"Seriously, Mr. Pokemon Master; you told me you just got over being sick. We're only a few hours from your house and you said barely thirty seconds ago that you were feeling chilly. Put on – the – stupid – jacket."

"I'm not doing it and I'd like to see you try and make me!" he retorted with a glare, "It's _pink_ , Misty. Pink is for girls. And James. But mostly, it's for girls. I'm not going to let anyone I know blackmail me because they saw I was crazy enough to wear that! I'll just su – suffer…" But he faltered, mid-snarky remark, so that he could unleash a sneeze, followed by a pathetic sniffle, "… I'll just suffer through it. Like you said, it's only for a few hours. I'm man enough to take it!"

"Right," the redhead scoffed, still trying unsuccessfully to shove her old worn jacket into his arms even as she continued mocking him, "You were really manly when you wore that dress and wig and all that make-up just to get into the Celadon City Gym. And from what I hear," she went on with an airy tone even as her face tightened into a malicious smirk, "you haven't given up on that _manly_ hobby of yours over the past couple of years."

Ash went stark still in horror. He couldn't believe his other friends would sell him out like that! Especially Cilan! Oh, man, what if he and Misty had been exchanging stories and photos and… and… He grimaced, shaking his head to try and rid himself of the very idea.

"I wouldn't have done that if I had any other options! But if it's going to help me get closer to my goal as a future Pokemon Master, of course I'd do anything it takes! Short of that, though, not on your life!"

"Pika…" his best buddy sighed from his shoulder before reaching around with his tail and bopping Ash softly on the back of the head, then raising his chin and nudging his small nose in Misty's direction, "Chu chu pika, Pikapi!"

"Pikachu, I know you're worried about me but it's fine! Besides, you don't understand what it means to have your masculinity tested by something as degrading as this!" the raven-haired trainer went on with another sniffle, sounding outright offended at his position in the argument, two against one.

"Pikachu!" the electric mouse exclaimed before hopping straight into Misty's arms and wrapping himself up in the jacket of his own accord.

"I think what he's trying to say is that," the redhead began with a confident smile, "there's no shame in accepting a bit of help from a friend, even if it may be somewhat embarrassing. He might _also_ be saying that you should just be grateful you have someone who's willing to lend you their personal belongings when they could just as easily ignore your stupid whimpering and continue on their merry way, especially considering what happened the last time a certain someone got hold of a certain someone else's bi–"

"–I know what he's saying!" Ash sniped aggressively, but gave in and stubbornly ripped the semi-familiar pink jacket from her arms and held it before him with a twitching brow and a firm jaw. Pikachu fell to the ground but luckily landed right-side-up and stood beside the redhead, both of them watching the young trainer fumble with the apparently foreign and distasteful choice of attire.

"Guh… Urgh…" he gurgled and moaned aloud and Misty rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and started tapping her foot impatiently.

This was getting ridiculous. For goodness sake, if the situation had been the other way around, she knew for sure she wouldn't be giving Ash such a hard time about borrowing _his_ jacket!

But she froze at the thought and let an unfortunately _very_ recognizable warmth wash over her. Darn it; she'd been trying to tell her stupid hormones to stop that over the past few months (or years) but they just never cared to listen to her…

"Pikapi…" Pikachu growled, staring up at his trainer with a mild snarl.

Misty rejoined the present predicament and realized that nothing had really changed.

Ash was still standing there, awkwardly holding her jacket out at arms' length before him and turning his nose up at it. At some point, he decided to try putting a single arm through the respective sleeve but, halfway through, he chickened out and retracted it at full speed.

The redhead couldn't help thinking that the whole situation would be rather funny if it wasn't so pitiful.

However, two minutes later, she finally snapped. Honestly, she didn't know how she'd managed to maintain her temper for so long already.

"Hey!" Ash yelped as she yanked the still-very-pink jacket from his grip and proceeded to wrap it around her own shoulders, glaring at him in frustration.

The raven-haired trainer thought for a moment that perhaps their most recent spat was over, that maybe Misty had given up… And he was right about part of that, though it certainly wasn't _over_ in the way he'd hoped it to be.

The redhead draped the cotton around her and irritatedly slid her arms through the sleeves then, without breaking her stride, looped elbows with Ash and pulled him in her direction.

Now with their cheeks less than four inches from each other, he felt all of his internal alarms buzz in concern. This was definitely wrong, but maybe not as much as he first thought, but it was different and new and weird and he could feel her breath on his face and, if he turned his head just a couple of inches, they'd be practically touching and he shouldn't be thinking about that kind of stuff – ugh – especially not with _Misty_ of all people but here they were and – and…

His internal tangent ended rather abruptly.

It only got stranger from there as the redhead took one half of the fabric and stretched it as far as it would go, halfway around the raven-haired trainer's torso.

All was still for the following few seconds, even Pikachu, who was staring up at the two of them with his mouth hanging open in awe.

"There," she stated firmly, and Ash internally bristled at the thought that she wasn't as freaked out by this turn of events as he was (though she had been the one to instigate it so maybe that had something do with it).

What he didn't know was that – of course – it was indeed burning her up and setting off multitudes of fireworks throughout her entire nervous system just by being so close to him despite her best attempts to quash such things before they went too far out of control.

"I just… What's happening right now?" he asked breathlessly, face flushed and throat suddenly quite dry.

"This is to keep you warm since you're too much of a _wimp_ to just wear the jacket on your own," she told him warily, avoiding his line of sight even as she tried to keep a constant vigilance. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, him licking his lips, probably trying to salivate them after having the air, courage, and all else knocked out of him.

That sensible response didn't make it any less distracting for her though.

"Uh, um," Forming words was incredibly difficult but he was indeed doing his very best to say _something._ She'd just helped him and insulted him both at the same time; surely he could come up with a retort! Right? "Th – than…"

But the considerate appreciation he'd felt both unwilling and obligated to voice was cut off by the electric mouse staring up at the two of them from the ground below.

"Pikapi, Pikachupi, pi chu pipi pikachu!" he reminded them, glancing warily up at the sun, which was breaching a distant line at the base of the sky and the lip of the land. It was close to dusk and, if they didn't hurry, they'd be late for the feast Mrs. Ketchum had surely prepared her son and his friends.

Misty cleared her throat and began to move awkwardly forward, still bound to her best friend at the shoulders and hips. She didn't quite trust her voice enough to say aloud that she accepted his _thank you_ , and she didn't trust him much either not to take it back out of sheer obstinacy.

Ash, for his part, decided he'd rather not look at her for the rest of the very uncomfortable walk home, especially now that his heart seemed to have decided to give out on him. Seriously, he didn't think it'd ever beat this fast before. If they could just make it back to the Ketchum house in as many pieces as they'd started with, he'd be quite impressed.

But hey, for the record, at least he wasn't cold anymore.

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Notes** – So awhile back, I had stated that I was basically done with writing fanfics due to lack of reader response, and that there would be no activity on this account other than uploading fics that were otherwise uniquely posted elsewhere (like Tumblr). As it turns out, I forgot to upload this series here as I was making my mental list of everything that I hadn't added to my FFN page yet so, yeah... Here's this thing. There are two other one-shots that will be added some time in the near future. As with everything else, I don't really plan on continuing to add to this despite there absolutely being options and opportunities for it (there was, like, a whole list of tropes to choose from that I'd reblogged on Tumblr) but who knows? Until then, you can at least enjoy this.

Reviews and faves are wonderful but, of course, I have no expectations at this point.


	2. fake dating

**Disclaimer** – Of course I own this stuff! But only 'cause I stole it first! Mwahahah…

 **Author** \- Me! I mean, uh, Warlordess

 **Notes** – Part two of my "couples trope" series. Just so everyone knows, none of these one-shots are connected to each other. This was created based off of a list of trope cliches often spotted in romance fan-fiction and I decided to use it to get myself back into writing. I'm not sure if it's working all that well but at least _something_ has been posted because of it.

 **Dedication** – This one goes out to _thepyromancers_ , one of my many Tumblr wives. She loves Pokeshipping as much as I do, and she listens to me rant and moan on and on about our ship despite the fact that it probably drives her crazy. She really wanted me to use the _fake dating_ trope when I told her about this series… and, since I'd already formed half a story based on it, I decided to give the girl what she wants! Thanks, babe! I love you!

 **O** o **O**

 **Title** \- "Trope Trip"

 **part two** \- "fake dating"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

Ash Ketchum liked to think that he could handle just about anything. His reputation, after all, spoke for itself. He was the owner of a plethora of Pokemon (all of which were his trusted teammates and friends), a valued and rather _esteemed_ ranking participant of eight or so Pokemon Leagues around the world (whether they were officially sanctioned or not), he'd blasted off Team Rocket roughly a thousand times, and not to mention there was that whole saving-the-world-on-multiple-occasions thing, all the while maintaining a calm, calculated, and humble composure.

So, yeah, he was a pretty good guy, and more than that, he was _reliable_. He was always ready to lend a helping hand when it was necessary… Well, until now, that was.

Now, sitting across from an old friend, a tentative relation though it had turned out to be as a whole, and as volatile as her world-renowned temper, he couldn't help but second guess himself and, nay, even wonder how things had come to this at all.

The two of them were currently in downtown Cerulean City, enjoying the wonderful sunlight and balmy breeze thanks to the outdoor seating at the little cafe Misty had chosen for their so-called _date_.

He flinched and clenched and unclenched his fists, which were propped stiffly on his knees. Even daring to _think_ the word to himself was enough to send his reflexes into a fit, but he braced himself, repeated in his head the very conversation that had landed him here, and then finished up the round of self-loathing with a mental kick.

" _Wha'dya mean, a date? Why would I ever wanna do that kinda thing with you, Myst?"_ he'd asked the day before after deciding on an impromptu visit to Cerulean to see his old friend before heading back home. A few years prior, he wouldn't have even understood the language the redheaded gym trainer was using, her words laced with hopeful pleas.

But after so long traveling with Brock, so long with Cilan, and now after learning only very recently about another friend's romantic intentions with him – _Serena_ – well, suffice to say he knew enough… and he definitely wasn't interested in having another lesson on this particular subject anytime soon.

Watching Misty's expression the day before as she huffed and puffed and held her finger-laced hands up at him, begging and praying for his help… Hah, he wished he'd had a camera at the time to preserve the moment for years to come but alas, so he'd done as was expected and asked what she needed. And she'd told him about this guy she'd been interested in and how she wanted to get his attention and could he, as in Ash, maybe play a small role and pretend to date her – just once – to see if that would be enough to garner his concern.

His first response was to shut her down immediately and change the topic out of discomfort. Misty was clearly his _friend_ and no more, no less. She wasn't his type and, even if she somehow magically became just that, he still had other things on his plate that were far more important than a dinky little date. His secondary response was to sit there and take in the sight of her begging him – hah! - for such a favor. Oh, how the mighty and mature and so-called-grown-up (to cite a very distant yet still bitter insult) had fallen. His third gear kicked up with a less familiar emotion – one that he hadn't felt in quite a long while – something edgy and violent and olive-colored like jealousy, but he quashed it right away and found the words he needed to set her straight.

 _"_ _Misty, you're crazy if you think I'm going to put myself through something like that! Just because you're letting me spend the night in the guest room doesn't mean I have to do whatever you say!"_ And he was so delicate about the entire matter too!

Arms crossed, nose so high in the air that the redhead couldn't help but wonder if the oxygen was a little thinner up there on his high Rapidash, he deigned to hear a couple more feeble excuses from her before she would inevitably decide to give in and let him win their latest not-argument…

A sigh and then, _"You're right, Ash. I should never have asked you. You wouldn't be able to pull it off anyway."_

His posture slipped and he nearly face-faulted and smashed his head into the tiled dining room flooring before choking on his response.

 _"W – what does that mean?"_

 _"_ _It means that the point of this fake date is to try and get the guy I like to notice me and make a move on his own! He won't bother if he knows it's an act, right? And, no offense, but someone as childish, one-track-minded, and dense as you probably wouldn't be able to put up a decent show,"_ she sighed again with a weary shrug of acceptance. _"I shouldn't have asked though. This is clearly my fault. I'll just have to find someone else… Maybe Tracey can help me the next time he visits the gym…"_

Ash felt an involuntary twitch in one of his eyes but blinked it away and hoped the redhead hadn't taken notice. The words flew from his lips before he'd had a chance to pace himself through the contract he'd verbally agreed to.

 _"I can do it just fine, Misty! Pssht, you'll regret ever calling me any of those things after I blow you away with my smooth moves!"_

So, next day, they were at the cafe and he was trying to will up the courage needed to pull off his aforementioned _smooth moves_. He'd been doing well so far. He didn't think anybody could glare at Misty – er, stare deeply into her eyes was what he was aiming for – as well as him. And surely nobody would be able to grimace – smile! He was _smiling_ – as animatedly as him. And so what if he'd accidentally kicked her with his foot five minutes into sitting down? He was fine; he was such a professional.

Such a professional, in fact, that he was pretty sure the whole terrible ordeal was two minutes from being _over_.

"Do you see him?" he whispered as discreetly as possible while sipping from the unsweetened iced tea she'd ordered for him (which, upon receiving, he'd decided to dump about five tablespoons of sugar into).

"Well," she whispered back with a plastic smile plastered on her face, clearly trying to keep the mood going despite his best efforts to smother it dead, "I called him this morning and told him we needed something from the Gym. Oh, he's a member of our Sensational Sister charter, Cerulean Branch," she elaborated at Ash's quirked brow.

"You mean the fan club your sisters founded in their own honor after they started those water ballets?"

"Yup; that's the one."

"The one you aren't even a member of 'cause you're just the runt?" he continued, whether it was daftly or succinctly, she couldn't be sure.

Misty's facial expression formed into a rigid glare for roughly three-quarters of a second but she stifled it and managed a smile, this time kicking _him_ under the table and causing him to jump. As soon as his hands were on the tabletop, she made her next move and firmly latched onto one of them.

"W – what are you doing?"

"What does it look like, Mr. Pokemon Master? I'm holding your hand!" she retorted with a sip of her own beverage afterwards, "Look, I know you're no Romeo–"

"– _Who_?" he interrupted, but never received an answer.

"–but really, we need some sort of lasting physical contact or this is never going to work. We just look like good friends having lunch together. We need some suggestive body language or else he won't catch on to what's supposed to be happening between us!"

 _He?_ Oh, right, _he_! Ash's mind had imploded so severely that, for a moment, he'd forgotten there was a specific purpose for everything he was being put through. That strange edgy pressure was back, nearly causing a troublesome stomachache, but he tried his best to suppress it until it had retreated once more. Who was this _he_ anyway? Didn't Ash deserve to know the name of the guy Misty was trying so hard to impress?

And she'd pulled out all the stops too, hadn't she? She'd used a plastic-pearl hair-tie for her signature side ponytail and had, of all ludicrous things, opted to wear a knee-length summer dress and flip-flops instead of her usual attire. To any other person, it would hardly make a difference because she still looked so much like _her_ overall, but to Ash, knowing why she was wearing that and why they were where they were and what they were waiting for… None of it sat well with him at all.

"That's better," she told him as Butterfree and Beautifly duked it out inside his abdomen at the slightest change in contact and, looking down, he noticed that he'd subconsciously unclenched his fist and was – for all intents and purposes – casually, _romantically_ holding his best friend's hand. Or was he simply allowing _her_ to hold _his_ hand?

There was a creeping tingle in that particular extremity but, like a pro, he did his best to ignore it and carry on a conversation. He could totally do this. He knew enough about girls to know how to get by without shooting himself in the foot in this kind of situation. He knew enough about _Misty_ to know what questions were worth asking and answering, what would get the best, most expressive responses out of her, what would cause her to smile and laugh and frown and open up to him.

It was strange. He definitely, really knew all about this… but he hadn't realized it until now, and he certainly hadn't expected it to be so simple once he'd been pushed against the wall and found no other options or routes of escape.

Sure, confusion aside, he'd received a couple of kisses, a couple of confessions, from girls in his time. He knew that there was something – something _appealing_ apparently about him… though he didn't understand why girls had to get so whimpery and clingy about it and why they had to try and force something out of him that he simply wasn't willing to or interested in giving, especially to girls he didn't really know all that well.

With Misty, despite her odd request for a date, it wasn't like that at all. They just acted like, well, like _them_ … only honest, and open, and accepting. They acted _mature_ , like it was simply the next stage of the _tentative relation_ they'd grown to share with one another.

At the brief mention of the word _stage_ , Ash felt a suddenly unbridled sense of regret. Everything else that day, new and different and terribly, awfully unexpected though it was, had managed to be pushed back by his sense of reason. He could constantly excuse this unexplored area of life by claiming that he had more important things on his plate, by thinking of his Pokemon and the Leagues and his dream…

"What are you doing now…?" he asked rather timidly (though hopefully she didn't notice) as he took stock of her hand, originally softly kneading his palm with her thumb, slowly easing up past the veins in his wrist and towards his forearm.

"I'm taking it a step further," she told him simply.

"What is it? Do you see hi–"

But Ash's next question was cut off when the redhead grabbed hold of him at the joint of his elbow and yanked him forward, intentions left undisclosed. In his haste to try and get a good look at the guy Misty was so interested in, the raven-haired trainer had begun wrenching his neck from left to right, trying to locate anyone who might be paying the two of them an unnecessary amount of attention.

He paused, frozen, as he felt a pair of lips haphazardly make contact with his cheek.

As previously mentioned, Ash had had his fair share of romantic experiences before, a couple of confessions, a couple of kisses. _None_ of them had made him feel quite like he did just then; perched barely over the edge of his seat in downtown Cerulean City, Kanto, skin fiery hot from both the unexpected physical contact he'd just received from his possibly-more-than-a-friend-but-maybe-not as well as the flush his own nervous system had decided to induce to help him ease through the shock. Feverish goosebumps riddled his entire frame, and he realized he was going to have to breathe _sometime_ soon or else risk losing consciousness. As if the day hadn't been embarrassing enough already.

He thought he'd known her, Misty, this girl he'd met years back when he was a greenhorn trainer fresh on his first journey away from home. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he'd underestimated her, oh so daring and thirsty to prove to – to… well, not to _him_ , at least not this time, but to prove to whoever that she was perfectly ready for that silly most-important-thing-in-the-world called "love" that he'd apparently been far too immature and young to notice or care about for so long…

But it was glaringly obvious to him now, _right_ now as he watched his best friend continue to stare pointedly at him, possibly waiting for more of a reaction than him leaning forward, gaping like an out-of-water Magikarp. However his vocal cords clearly needed another moment to cope so she cleared her throat and responded to his unasked question.

"No, Ash, I didn't see him."

Oh, right… There was that _him_ again, and Ash inevitably felt his entirely too perfect little world start falling down around him. Yes, he was quite sure after all that he didn't know Misty as well as he'd originally assumed. But that thought wasn't enough to kill his curiosity.

"Oh, so why did you, uh… I mean, we – you – uh, you just kissed me so… what was that all about?" he asked blankly, trying to sort the pieces of his newest thousand part puzzle.

"Depends," the redhead shrugged in response before all too casually sitting back and hunching forward, leaning her face against her palm and using their table to support the rest of the weight. "What are you feeling right now?" she went on to say suggestively, a small smile gracing her features.

Ash felt rather taken aback by this. What did he think? What was he _supposed_ to think? What did his thoughts have to do with anything anymore? Why were they even here? What did Misty want from him? Why did he care what she wanted? Why was she looking at him like that? Why did he feel so inclined to answer her instead of doing what he felt was long overdue at this point; that was, abruptly standing and walking back to the Cerulean Gym alone so that the two of them could have a little breathing room?

"I… I don't know," he replied anyway, the words breaching his lips before he could stop them. Strangely, his response did not precede an aggravated comeback.

He still didn't know who the guy was or what Misty wanted from him or what he was doing anymore or who he was trying to impress… but he did know that the line that had formerly separated his very simple lifestyle from that foreign territory had basically been blown to smithereens. He knew that he didn't like this guy he'd never met before, he knew that there was an undefined gray space where the definition of his relationship with Misty had formerly been. He knew that, for the first time in his entire life, he hadn't minded that awkward rumbling, fumbling, tumbling feeling he'd gotten after being kissed on the cheek by some girl. And finally, he knew that Misty was far more – and far more _complicated –_ than just _some girl_.

So perhaps he indeed knew more than he let on even though such information introduced more questions than answers.

But Ash – clever, dependable Ash – was indeed a professional. So he put on a smile and sat back in his chair and took in the situation for what it was, stifling that voice in his head still demanding answers to the questions it had been shouting over the course of the past five minutes. And then they finished their date and started the fifteen minute walk back to the gym.

"So how did I do?" he asked in a completely neutral tone on the way.

Misty nodded, an odd, somehow appeased expression on her face, "Pretty good, I guess, Mr. Pokemon Master. You're a more decent actor than I gave you credit for. But we may have to do this again. I'm not sure _he_ ," and she paused and waited for the slight acknowledgment of the still unnamed third party to show in the raven-haired trainer's gaze as they stared each other down, "quite got the message."

"Well, I guess if there's absolutely no other choice," Ash feigned wary acceptance of his continued burden, delighting in the sort-of-a-compliment that his friend had given him. As if there had been any doubt, right? Of course he could pull off something as simple as this! And he didn't think it'd be so bad, trying out their little date-thing a second time. Maybe there'd even be another kiss somewhere along the way…

He mulled it all over in his head, techno-lighted fluttering bouncing around his stomach once more. And then they continued the rest of their walk in relative silence.

What Ash had forgotten, however, was that Misty was – like him – a much better actor than she let on, especially coming from a family line of entertainers. After all, she had been able to both manipulate him into cooperating with her date as well as mislead him with the mention of a completely _imaginary_ third party.

Her mollified grin only grew wider as she watched her best friend inattentively stroll back to her home, clearly on cruise control.

 _Thanks for the first date, Mr. Pokemon Master._

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Notes** – No, okay, so that turned out a lot longer than I thought. I apologize. I knew, even before I started typing, that this was going to end up longer than my rough character limit/goal. I mean, usually "fake dating" trope fics are novel-length, or rather, at least a few chapters, so I guess I should just be pleased that I was able to do what I could and still contain it to a one-shot… but I guess that's all I've got going for me.


	3. trapped in an enclosed space

**Disclaimer** – Of course I own this stuff! But only 'cause I stole it first! Mwahahah...

 **Author** \- Me! I mean, uh, Warlordess

 **Notes** – Part three of my "couples trope" series. Just so everyone knows, none of these one-shots are connected to each other. This was created based off of a list of trope cliches (view the dedication or ending notes to find a link to it) often spotted in romance fan-fiction and I decided to use it to get myself back into writing. I'm not sure if it's working all that well but at least _something_ has been posted because of it.

 **Dedication** – This one goes out to pacificpikachu, the only one to respond to my post on Tumblr about which tropes I wouldn't mind writing Pokeshipping one-shots for. Thanks for bothering to give me a prompt! I hope this will be as entertaining as you imagined it to be when you replied to my blog!

 **O** o **O**

 **Title** \- "Trope Trip"

 **part three** \- "trapped in an enclosed space"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

The kind of awful situation he was in would usually only pertain to emergencies, no other options, last ditch attempts, things like that. However, if he'd been paying the slightest bit more attention, he would have realized right off the bat that he wasn't alone and turned tail in the opposite direction to find another, _better_ (just to throw it in Misty's face) hiding place.

The closet was already pretty small, filled to the brim with jackets, coats, a couple of small boxes, shoes, and the vacuum cleaner his mom hadn't bothered to replace over the course of the past ten years. Hey, don't fix what isn't broken and all that, right?

But now, with the hangers constantly bumping him in the back of the head, the vacuum's handle nudging into his right side, and the unwanted company that was an old friend with a grudge (if that still-too-familiar glare of hers was any indication), Ash Ketchum knew that he had well and truly boxed himself in.

"Ash..."

"Ssshhh! I – is that her? I think that's her," he whispered, inching closer to the closet door, presumably deciding to take a peek and make sure.

"No, Mr. Pokemon Master, it _isn't_ her. Just like it wasn't her the last two times you asked yourself that question," the redhead grumbled irritably with a scowl that he couldn't see through the darkness, so close to him that he felt the heat of her breath on his face with every syllable. "So can you just be quiet and wait for your mom to get home in silence like the rest of us are doing?"

"Misty, c'mon, this is a big deal! My mom doesn't even know I'm home today! This is going to be the best birthday present ever when she finds out! Nothing can compare to the sight of her _darling son_ after eight months with no face-to-face contact!"

"Face-to-face, huh? To be honest, I could do with a bit _less_ of that right now..." she replied almost scathingly from half an inch away from him.

The raven-haired trainer turned a frown and a creased brow in her direction, nearly mashing his nose against her cheek at the same time and doing his best to ignore the discomfort of her right shoulder and hip pressing against his opposing half. He hadn't realized just how close the two of them were before now.

"Why are you even here, Myst? Can't you find your own hiding place?" he asked sharply, resorting to a tone that would have to get through to her in a way that his unseeable-in-the-dark facial expression couldn't at the present time.

"Um, excuse you, but I was here first, remember? It's not my fault that you weren't paying attention and decided to leap in here in a panic earlier. And for the record, _that_ wasn't your mom either. It was Pikachu knocking over a cup in the dining room. So anyway, why don't _you_ get out and find somewhere else to hide if you're so miserable in here with me? Believe me, I definitely wouldn't mind it," and, in her haste, she accidentally stepped on his foot, somehow inadvertently proving her point.

"Yow! Jeezus, Misty, why'd you do that?" he asked, his tone escalating.

"I didn't mean to!" she replied unabashedly, feeling her inner frustration pick up again after she'd been trying to spend the last few minutes holding it at a low simmer. At the same time she attempted to maneuver herself so that she was as far away as possible, but it was futile what with all of the clothes blocking her very limited spacial conditions, unless she decided to forgo all delicacy and knock everything over instead.

"Sshhh! How am I supposed to be on the lookout for my mom when you keep making that kind of racket, huh?" he went on, waving his hand at her as if to forcibly calm her down (and inevitably smacking her in the arm at the same time).

"Oh, please, all you've been doing is alternating moaning and groaning about being here with me and then switching to wondering if any random not-sound just happens to be your mom coming back from Professor Oak's lab with Tracey."

"Pssht, well at least I'm trying! All you've been doing is whining and glaring at me for no reason at all that I can think of!"

"Well, of course not, Mr. Pokemon Master; after all, you never think anyway so why should it matter how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking, right?" she asked in a rave, waving her arms around and causing one to smash rather unfortunately into the door and another to smack him in the side of the face.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"That's what you said last time!"

"Will both of you just shut up?!" Brock's voice rung out exasperatedly from somewhere beyond their small corner of the house and they both immediately did, Ash concerned that his mom would (of course) walk in at the wrong time and the surprise would be blown, and Misty because, though she could give two Rattata about how Ash was feeling, she certainly didn't want to be the reason for spoiling Delia Ketchum's birthday when the woman was like a surrogate mother to her.

The closet now bathed in absolute quiet, Ash had no choice but to listen to the combined breathing of himself and his poor choice of hiding-mate as well as pay attention to every slight shift in movement they made. He couldn't help but note their extremely close proximity, the tangle of their legs as she stood half next to and half behind him. Every once in awhile, a random strand of her hair would brush against his neck and he'd do his best to twist just far enough away so that it didn't tickle, but then he was drawn back to her stupid breath fluttering, puffing at his cheek.

All of this wasn't made any easier when Misty, again in an effort to relocate herself and add to the nonexistent amount of space between them, ended up tripping over a few of the shoes below them that had already been shuffled around by their every other move. In her attempt to catch herself and break her fall, she threw one arm out, slamming it against the door, while her body wrenched forward. Thankfully, she remained mostly upright, however at the same time, her equally-as-stupid-as-her-breath lips fell and mashed against the corner of his mouth just as he decided he should turn and do his part to check on her and make sure she was okay.

The two of them stood there for about another forty-five seconds before Misty, now slightly dazed and intoxicated by the contact with formerly unexplored territory, stealthily, slowly backed away and took her terrible, culpable lips with her.

"So, uh..." he began with a fumble of his own vocal cords, his voice cracking awkwardly somewhere in the middle of the second syllable.

"Um," the redhead cleared her throat and, though he still couldn't see it, he could somehow feel the panic starting to well up in her, eyes wide at her recent deviance, "sorry. Accident. Didn't mean to."

"Third time you've said that in the past twenty minutes, Myst... I'm beginning to think you're not being honest with me here."

Ash thought that her dread was mostly caused by the very real and strange incident that had just happened between them. Of course, little did he know that Misty had been wondering about something happening between them for a long time now, had simply never worked up the courage enough on her own to broach the subject, had only sat back wondering and growing more and more disappointed at the distance between his phone-calls and emails while figuring that, had an opportunity been in the works, it would have happened already.

Still, not knowing any of that, he decided he should at least break the ice.

"Y – you okay?" he tried timidly. She nodded, didn't trust her voice, but he didn't see that so he figured this was worse than he thought.

"L – look, it's not a – a big deal, right? I mean, I've been kissed a couple of times before by other girls, you know, and they didn't really matter, even though they were a lot better-looking than you – _ow_! Jeez, Misty, what's wrong now? I'm just trying to help you feel better about this, okay?" he asked, but at least tried to muffle his voice this time around by gritting his teeth... though that may have been in part due to the pain of her stepping on his foot a second time; and this one _hadn't_ been an accident.

"Well, don't bother! I wouldn't expect you to care now after the past five months without you saying one word to me while you were away from home!" she argued, jabbing him in the shoulder with her index finger a few times for good measure.

"Misty, I was busy training for the Kalos League Championships, okay? I didn't have much time to talk to anyone!"

"That's your problem, Mr. Pokemon Master; that's _always_ been your problem! I mean, you still, even now, don't understand what's important, do you? I get it, Pokemon training is a big deal, becoming Pokemon Master is a big deal for you, it's your dream, but it's not going anywhere! Your relationships with _people_ , though, they depend on communication! All I would have needed from you was five minutes of your time! That's it, and it's definitely not asking for too much!"

"Is that why you've been so mad at me all day? Because you wanted me to call you more often?" he yelped as if the very idea had never even crossed his mind.

"No," she scoffed sarcastically, "that's just _silly_. Why would I want my best friend to call me once in awhile and let me know what's going on in his life? Why would I want a best friend to talk to at all? I mean, there are so many other people I can have a conversation with, like my part-time sisters who are away for half of the year on regional modeling tours, or my Pokemon who can't exactly talk back to me even if they wanted to, or Tracey, who – if I'm lucky – I get to see once every two months."

Whatever odd little situation had taken place a few minutes ago had been stifled by the arrival of the current matter at hand. However, before Ash could try and dissuade his friend from getting anymore abusive towards him, she finally confessed the one thing she'd been neglecting to say.

"I mean, it's not like _I miss you_ or anything!"

"Y – you..." he tried and failed to repeat the dreaded statement she'd just bluntly made.

Ash Ketchum had met a lot of people over the course of his years on the road, and – had this line come from anyone else – he would have responded in a heartbeat with all the friendly enthusiasm it was possible to muster. His relationship with Misty, however, was (and had always been) very different from his relationship with anyone else. They'd started out very rocky with differing yet still staggering levels of overconfidence and stubbornness. It was because of this, as well as his density and her pride, that they rarely ever got along for more than a few minutes, and it was why it had taken them nearly _three years_ simply to admit that they were friends with each other.

That was not to say that, before such things had been voiced, they weren't friends at all. To the contrary, Ash knew far too much about Misty (and vice verse) for him to even consider that they hadn't been friends since almost the day they'd met, despite such hostile beginnings. But, short of life-or-death or extremely-long-distance situations, he hadn't seriously considered admitting such a thing out loud ever again.

"You, uh... So you miss me, huh?" he asked and was pleased that his smirk was hidden in the dark even now, "Hehe, wow, Misty, didn't think you had it in you to say something like that..." And he proceeded to poke her, both verbally and physically for the next few seconds, unsuccessfully suppressing a bout of _very_ manly giggles.

"I guess you must think of me a lot, huh? Must miss me everyday? Must like me tons to bother telling me, eh? Eh? Eh?" he continued, and the redhead growled in aggravation, doing her best to ignore him as well as hide her flush at the mere mention of the words ' _like me tons'_.

Surely he hadn't figured _that_ part out, after all, right?

"Ash, I will _break your finger, and your jaw_ if you do not. Shut. Up." she warned him, and, using skills neither knew she possessed, she grabbed his hand in less than a second and held it firmly in her grip, the gravity of her threats apparent when she twisted his wrist just a bit to get his attention.

"Hehe..." he laughed again, however this time it was weighed down considerably with fear, "well, um, w - would it make you feel better if I told you that you were my best friend too?"

It was enough to make her let go of his hand anyway.

"R – really?" she asked. Ash, realizing that she was taking his own confession a lot more seriously than he'd planned, cleared his throat and licked his now very dry lips, trying his best to get the suddenly rabid beating of his heart to calm down a bit.

He wished more than just about anything in the world at the present time that things would stop getting so somber between them. It was a lot easier to get along with Misty when they had no expectations for each other. Just because they were old friends, just because the twinges of _something more_ had been reignited with their accidental half-kiss, didn't mean that he wanted to test the boundaries of everything they'd founded their very relationship off of.

"Um, well, if you... I mean..." His stammer was interrupted, however, by the distant sound of a door opening and shutting, followed by a couple of semi-familiar voices.

"Thanks so much for helping me feed the Pokemon on the preserve today, Mrs. Ketchum," Tracey was saying from the dining room. "You're always such a big help."

"Oh, it's no problem! I always look forward to seeing the Pokemon, especially Ash's. They make me feel closer to him when he's not home," the woman replied with a chuckle followed by a wistful sigh, and the two of them walked towards the living room.

"Oh, oh, this is it!" Ash stated distractedly, reaching around in the dark to find the doorknob. Finally, when he'd grasped it, he went on, "And now, in three, two..."

"Wait, Ash, I still... What about..." But Misty's comments went unheard in his excitement.

"One!"

"I said _wait a minute_! I think we might be – whoa..."

And the two of them stumbled and crashed through the doorway and into the living room, falling to the floor in front of the bottom landing of the staircase. At the same time, Brock, May, Dawn, Max, and the rest of Ash's friends all popped out of their hiding places and shouted a unanimous mix of _surprise!_ and _happy birthday!_ to the Ketchum matriarch, leaving her delightfully impressed by the turn out.

That was, until she noted her teenage son and a very good girl friend of his (as in, friend-who-happened-to-be-a-girl) tangled and mashed up together on the ground, and her mouth fell open in shock, as well as everyone else's.

"Ash, honey, what were you _doing_ with Misty in my closet?" she asked kindly, as if she was suppressing her maternal urges, both of which were telling her that she should either, A., cry out in celebration that her son had finally figured out his hormones, or, B., take the situation under her control and make sure that nothing permanent had truly happened in there.

Ash and Misty, for their part, were doing their best to try and disengage themselves from one another, both red in the face from the embarrassment at interrupting everything. Brock, in haste, decided to try and make the best out of a bad situation.

"You know," he whispered under his breath to everyone, "I thought for sure that the two of them would end up fighting and ruining the surprise. As it turns out, they've made this party _a lot_ better than we ever could!"

 **O** o **O** o **O**

 **Notes** – Oh, yay, it's finished! I threw this fic together in a couple of hours! It... kind of got away from me because I had, like, three different directions I wanted to take it in. In the end, I somehow went part of the way in all of them... so I think it got kind of messy. But the ending (and the corner-mouth kiss) made it all worth it, right? _Right_?


End file.
